We launched a new site today: SportsGrid. There's lots of data porn to ingest there, but imagine if you triangulated a player's performance metrics with their internet buzz with their salary. You could develop a new statistic -- their hype.

According to a Wall Street Journal study of four recent broadcasts, and similar estimates by researchers, the average amount of time the ball is in play on the field during an NFL game is about 11 minutes.

A few months ago, a NYT Mag columnist speculated that maybe the reason Friday Night Lights was a ratings failure had to do with its lack of internet presence. Yesterday, in one of the most buzzed clips in months, the guy who wrote the book that inspired the series (and is a Vanity Fair editor, natch) showed up on Costas Now to go totally freakazoid about blogs. Is there a looming blogphobia sweeping the country? I dunno, but Leitch thinks so. UPDATE: NYT weighs in.

China is literally trying to modify the weather for the upcoming Beijing Olympics. (Btw, a few people have asked if Fimoc is shutting down for the Olympics again. [I produced NBC's site for the last two Olympics.] I'm happy to say that I have absolutely nothing to do with it this time around -- no more memorizing the nuances of Modern Pentathlon for me!)

BornReady.tv is a real-time documentary about Lance Stephenson, a New York high school junior who is also a basketball superstar and a potential NBA lottery pick. Interestingly produced by Fader, which has more details.

Chuck wrote about that Ali Rap thing in ESPN that I mentioned a couple days ago. "While it's difficult to prove Ali invented rap music, it's almost indisputable that he spawned what is now referred to as 'the modern athlete,' a term that's generally used as coded, pejorative language."